Red bibs & hinting at the cycle of the Goddess.

While researching the red bibs in Kunitsu-Gami and their possible significance, I learnt no one knows why these bibs are added to statues. 

But it's speculated to honor children who died.

(My research is what began my Spirit Stone post but I never posted on the bibs themselves as it turned out to not go anywhere. It's not unique to Kunitsu-Gami.)

I thought child mortality, or even infertility, was an issue in Kunitsu-Gami but actually, in the past Japanese children would die young often. So this is rather normal.

But I wonder in times of woe, when the Seethe attack, is infertility an issue? The Path takes at least a year. It confirms all 4 seasons pass in the game. 

What does the pact affect? How bad do things really get?

Some photos of statues:

They are in many places. Along with pinwheels, too. Pinwheels can represent the cycle of life, reincarnation or to honor dead children.

But here, they're put by the Goddess:

Is Kunitsu-Gami using the old belief that the Mountain God is an ancestral deity? It would explain why she is 'replaced' every cycle by the new Maiden, who was first worshiped as the Mountain Deity she had devoted herself to, effectively being able to replace her due to this perceived fusion.
(there's a belief that the maidens who worshiped the agricultural(mountain) goddess fused with her and were worshiped as well. This is what happens to Yoshiro)

A short that touches on the Red Bibs topic: